This invention relates to a sheath for carrying a fixed blade knife having a handle formed integral therewith. The sheath includes means for selectively enabling the sheath and its knife to be carried upside down beneath a person's shoulder or to be carried rightside up on a belt extending about a person's waist. The sheath and knife have a slim compact configuration when assembled together to facilitate it being concealed beneath a person's coat. To applicant's knowledge there is no prior art illustrating the supporting of a knife sheath upside down from a shoulder harness.
The prior art does disclose, however, the supporting of a pistol upside down in a shoulder holster attached by snap fasteners to a shoulder harness. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,784 issued Jan. 17, 1978 to Robert Angell. The supporting of the knife with the handle hanging down beneath the sheath as in the present invention requires that the sheath be positively locked to the shoulder harness and that the knife be positively locked in the sheath against accidental withdrawal but in such a way as to permit quick and easy removal of the knife when desired. Applicant has found the use of snap fasteners as taught by Angell to unreliably support the sheath, whereas the buckle provides a positive attachment.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,391,574 issued Dec. 25, 1945 to Glen E. Housinger discloses a belt-supported sheath and a positive locking arrangement for holding the knife in the sheath wherein the knife handle includes a spring normally biased outwardly from the handle and including a locking pin registrable with a notch in the scabbard which supports the knife. The scabbard of Housinger is apparently formed from rigid material in order that the notch provide positive seating for the locking pin to serve its intended function of preventing accidental removal of the knife from the sheath. There is no teaching in Housinger of supporting the knife upside down from a shoulder harness and the rigidity and bulkiness of the scabbard and knife in Housinger render it unsuitable for supporting the knife upside down from a shoulder harness in accordance with this invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,439,197 issued Apr. 6, 1948 to Garrett J. Wykoff discloses a belt-supported sheath and mating snap fasteners on the handle of the knife and a tongue struck from the sheath for preventing the knife from being accidentally removed from the sheath. Snap fasteners do not provide the certainty of locking required to support the knife upside down from a shoulder harness as in applicant's invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,783,536 issued Mar. 5, 1977 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,859,516 issued Nov. 11, 1958 to Milton F. McQueary both disclose belt-supported sheaths and the use of a spring for retaining a knife within its sheath. In both instances the sheath extends about both sides of the handle and one side of the handle has a transverse rounded groove which receives a correspondingly shaped transverse rib protruding from the inner wall of the sheath. A spring is employed in each instance to normally urge the rib and the groove together. The disclosures of the McQueary patents are objectionable because the sheath extends about both sides of the knife handle providing undesirable bulk for use with a shoulder harness as in the present invention. The McQueary devices are further objectionable because the mating rounded groove and rib concept does not provide a positive locking arrangement but a frictional lock which can be accidentally overcome to cause the knife to become undesirably removed from its sheath, particularly when the knife is supported upside down with the handle beneath the sheath.